Jung Hae Jin, who had been standing awkwardly, put down her phone and glass and sat down.

She disliked the look in the eyes of the man sitting before her, Park Seo Woo, from the start. She knew from his actions that he lacked consideration, and his blatant gaze was unwelcome.

Moreover, he had mentioned interest. How laughable. How many times had he even seen me?

Perhaps I should have sat where I was with Tae Hong earlier. She turned her head to look at where they had been sitting together.

“You seem to take a lot of interest in people you’re meeting for the first time.”

Hae Jin’s voice was full of sarcasm, but her expression remained pleasant.

“And Executive Director Park Seo Woo.”

Hae Jin briefly lowered her gaze to the title on his business card before looking up again. Seo Woo was still confidently observing her.

“I don’t eat sweet fruit.”

Seo Woo’s face asked why. Since he asked for a reason, she should answer.

“Because sweet fruit always contains poison.”

What he proposed was poison to her. What price would he demand in exchange for allowing her to view the materials freely? She wasn’t curious, nor did she want to think about it.

Having said her piece, she intended to return to her room as she could no longer sit across from him. At that moment, Seo Woo reached out his hand.

Was he asking her to sit? Even in the gesture of wiggling his fingers, there was no courtesy.

“Aren’t you going to give me your business card?”

The palm that had been extended to ask her to sit now turned upward and wiggled slightly. She looked at the empty palm for a moment and thought.

Why should I give it to him?

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t bring my business cards with me.”

Of course, she had a few spare cards between the pages of her notebook. But there were no cards for Seo Woo. His intentions were impure, and his attitude was terrible.

What reason was there to give it to him? She didn’t want to create unnecessary trouble.

“Well then, have a good time.”

Hae Jin turned without the slightest hesitation and walked towards the exit. A good time, my foot. Her alone time had ended with just one beer because of Park Seo Woo.

**

Finally, the last meeting was over. Hae Jin and Tae Hong got into the car after receiving lavish hospitality from their business partners.

Looking at her notebook filled with dense writing, she felt proud that the seemingly endless string of meetings had finally concluded.

While excited about the prospect of organizing everything neatly, she couldn’t help but worry about Tae Hong, who had been in a low mood since morning.

Why is he like that? Thinking back to see if she had made any particular mistakes in the morning, there didn’t seem to be anything worth his mood.

“Team Leader.”

Even when called, his response was lukewarm at best. She could see him fiddling with his phone meaninglessly.

“Team Leader?”

So she called again. Only at the second call did Tae Hong barely look at Hae Jin.

Why is he acting like this? She quickly ran through her thoughts. Thinking to avoid idle speculation, there was only one thing she hadn’t done today.

“Team Leader, is it because you didn’t exercise today?”

Tae Hong’s expression fluctuated.

So that’s it. Thinking she had hit the nail on the head, she started the car. While it had granted her a sweet rest, for him, it might have been different as it was part of his daily routine.

“Come on. It’s not like your muscles are going to disappear just because you skipped one day of exercise.”

She needed to mix in some appropriate flattery to lift his sunken mood. Though the meetings were over, important schedules hadn’t even begun yet.

“You can afford to rest for a day, Team Leader. I’m sure your muscles would want that too.”

A bit of flattery to make the other person feel good was like the right amount of MSG. Especially highlighting a superior’s strengths was the basics of basics.

“Why don’t you take a week off while you’re at it? Your muscles would cheer.”

She started the car with a broad smile. But there was no answer from him. Then, as if he had lost his rhythm, he belatedly opened his mouth.

“I exercised at dawn.”

“Why?”

After saying he should rest, could it be that he did it for me?

“Do I have to explain the reason too?”

“No, well. If you don’t want to say, you don’t have to.”

He was unusually prickly, but if it was possibly for her sake, she should graciously accept it.

“But Team Leader, did something unpleasant happen?”

All her attention was focused on Tae Hong’s low pressure, but due to driving, all she could do was glance at him occasionally. Whether he knew or not, he remained silent.

“The meeting ended well, you said you exercised at dawn, and you had breakfast and lunch properly.”

She mumbled to herself, trying to find the source of his low mood. Could his caffeine levels be low?

“Should we stop at a drive-thru nearby?”

“Let’s just go.”

If only he had agreed to stop, it might have changed the atmosphere a bit, but Tae Hong didn’t seem to want that at all.

“Alright, I understand.”

So Hae Jin had nothing more to say. The car was quiet and heavy. It felt like it was sinking deeply.

With Tae Hong’s mood, the depth of his slightly furrowed brow, all of Hae Jin’s attention was focused on him.

Wanting to get out of there quickly, Hae Jin increased her speed. The road conditions seemed to be on her side, clearing up without any obstructions.

“Assistant Manager Jung Hae Jin.”

Just as she was about to exceed 70 km/h, a sharp voice called out to her.

“If we get a speeding ticket, Assistant Manager Jung Hae Jin will pay for it.”

Hae Jin quietly reduced her speed. She couldn’t afford a ticket just for the immediate sense of liberation. Her youthful enjoyment of speed had vanished like a bubble.

“Team Leader. I’m asking because I’m feeling frustrated.”

Finally, Hae Jin asked first. Since she couldn’t speed, she had to resolve this here.

“Is something wrong?”

There was nothing she could predict. At this moment, it was like the unpredictable nature of a rugby ball. She really couldn’t understand the reason.

“From what I can tell, you seem to be in a very bad mood, Team Leader.”

“It’s the same as usual.”

That’s not what she asked to hear. She didn’t even hope for a sincere answer, just the exact reason.

“I don’t think so. More than usual, here, your brow has been furrowed continuously.”

Hae Jin took one hand off the steering wheel and poked her own brow.

“It’s the same as usual, so stop saying useless things.”

Tae Hong leaned back into his seat even more deeply.

“Focus on driving.”

And then, as if implicitly expressing that further questions were not welcome, he closed his eyes.

Really, why is he like this?

With Tae Hong maintaining his silence, the car arrived at their accommodation.

“Team Leader, we’ve arrived.”

Hae Jin shook Tae Hong, who still had his eyes closed, to wake him. But Tae Hong didn’t seem to want to get up.

Even with his iron constitution, it had been a grueling schedule. On top of that, he had even forced himself to exercise at dawn, so it was understandable that he was tired.

She wanted to let him sleep a bit more, but there wasn’t time for that. They were pressed for time to prepare and leave for the foundation anniversary event venue.

“Team Leader. You need to wake up.”

She leaned deeply towards Tae Hong, even unbuckling his seatbelt, and shook him. At that moment, his eyelids slowly lifted. In the moment she flinched, her arm that had been balanced on the console box collapsed.

Something hard touched Hae Jin’s face. It was his broad chest. Half of her face was pressed against it. With each surprised breath, she could feel his shirt rising and falling through the gap.

She needed to lift her body, she had to, but why wasn’t her body listening again?

Hae Jin could hear the throbbing heartbeat on her cheek and feel the hot heat. Now she really needed to pull away from his chest.

She tried to quickly lift her upper body, but faster than that was his large hand. Gently inserting his hand into her hair, he cupped the back of her head. Her face, which had been slightly lifted, returned to its original position.

“Te-Team Leader?”

This wasn’t why she woke him up. They really didn’t have time, and if he really needed to rest his eyes, it should have been after all preparations were complete and on the way.

“We don’t have time.”

Right now, arriving on time was the priority. As this was the most important schedule, there should be no errors or mistakes.

Hae Jin was feeling every minute and second pass anxiously, but Tae Hong seemed unaffected. It was only the subordinate who was restless in the face of the superior’s composure.

In the end, if things go wrong and mistakes are made, it’s the subordinate, not the superior, who takes responsibility. Isn’t this an unchanging rule of workplace life?

So she needed to quickly escape from his embrace, but his large hand applied more force to prevent it.

“Assistant Manager Jung Hae Jin.”

Being held, she couldn’t see his expression. She wanted to understand his intention, but it was difficult because of the loudly beating heart.

“I told you to rest yesterday, did you rest well?”

There was a bit of regret about just one drink, but she had rested well after returning to her room. With no early morning schedule, she had managed to rest properly for once.

“I even cut out the dawn exercise, so you must have rested well.”

Before Hae Jin could answer, he had already made his judgment.

“Yes, I rested well.”

“But did you have a late-night snack yesterday?”

Of course, she hadn’t told him, but she had had a night drink rather than a snack. She thought there was no need to talk about every little detail of her private life after work hours.

“Your face is quite swollen.”

That couldn’t be. Even if her face had been puffy every dawn, the swelling always went down within half a day. That’s nonsense, she thought, intentionally applying force to the back of her head to push back.

She thought it wouldn’t move, but it moved easily, causing her head to tilt slightly backward.

Still feeling Tae Hong’s palm on the back of her head, Hae Jin applied more force than before.

However, Hae Jin’s head was lifted effortlessly. Rather, due to the excessive force, her head tilted slightly backward.

“Swollen, you say? That can’t be. I only had one beer yesterday.”

Having escaped from his embrace, it wasn’t difficult to see the changing look in his eyes in real-time. His eyes flashed with a sharp light, then quickly disappeared.

“Is that so? That’s disappointing.”

She quickly sat upright in the driver’s seat at the suddenly changed look in his eyes. He seems to hug quite often, subtly. She even felt like the number of times he casually embraced her was increasing.

She wasn’t sure if this was the right way to set boundaries.

“If you had called, I would have come right away.”

“Next time I have the chance, I’ll be sure to call you, Team Leader.”

To hide that it was an empty promise, Hae Jin forced her lips to curl up a bit more. It was clearly after work hours, and she couldn’t say she went there to organize her thoughts. Nothing had been properly organized yet.

Looking at where they had sat together in the lounge, she thought of him, and even the rude behavior of that strange person started to be compared to him.

With thoughts that followed her wherever she went, rather than organizing, her thoughts only deepened. Could she really continue this relationship with him as it was?

“Making empty promises isn’t attractive.”

It seemed like he was talking to himself. Her cheek that had touched him still tingled, but he left this space as if nothing had happened.